Reid: My source on Romney’s taxes is so incredibly credible that I won’t say who he is

posted at 10:01 am on August 3, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

After Mitt Romney told Harry Reid to “put up or shut up” about allegations of income-tax evasion, Reid chose this morning to … do neither. Instead, Reid released a statement late yesterday essentially tripling down on his evidence-free accusations, and again insisted that Romney had to prove himself innocent:

As I said before, I was told by an extremely credible source that Romney has not paid taxes for ten years. People who make as much money as Mitt Romney have many tricks at their disposal to avoid paying taxes. We already know that Romney has exploited many of these loopholes, stashing his money in secret, overseas accounts in places like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

Last weekend, Governor Romney promised that he would check his tax returns and let the American people know whether he ever paid a rate lower than 13.9 percent. One day later, his campaign raced to say he had no intention of putting out any further information.

When it comes to answering the legitimate questions the American people have about whether he avoided paying his fair share in taxes or why he opened a Swiss bank account, Romney has shut up. But as a presidential candidate, it’s his obligation to put up, and release several years’ worth of tax returns just like nominees of both parties have done for decades.

It’s clear Romney is hiding something, and the American people deserve to know what it is. Whatever Romney’s hiding probably speaks volumes about how he would approach issues that directly impact middle-class families, like tax reform and the economy. When you are running for president, you should be an open book.

I understand Romney is concerned that many people, Democrats and Republicans, have been calling on him to release his tax returns. He has so far refused. There is only one thing he can do to clear this up, and that’s release his tax returns.

Note, please, that we seem to be back to one source for this information — “an extremely credible source,” but Reid did not use a plural. Earlier in the week, Reid claimed to have “a number of sources,” and that “the word is out.” So which is it? One extremely credible source from Bain who somehow got to look at Romney’s personal taxes for a ten-year period even though no one would have access to that except the Romneys, their accountant, and the IRS? Or a number of sources who say “the word is out”? Reid’s sounding more and more like Joe McCarthy every day.

Reid, who also refuses to release his own tax returns, isn’t just a hypocrite and a slanderer. He’s also a political idiot. Until these attacks, Romney was on the defensive over his tax returns. Now Romney can paint his decision to keep them private as a principled stand against unscrupulous opponents. Reid has handed the high ground to Romney in this fight with his scurrilous lies. Reid has all but ruined Obama’s strategy of making Romney look secretive and weird.

Investors Business Daily editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez agrees that the word is out on Reid:

Have you heard about a mysterious phone call from one of Happy Harry Reid’s political cronies from the mortifying days in 1974 when Paul Laxalt waxed him for the Nevada Senate seat that changed the course of Reid’s life forever?

It’s a pretty shocking story, and one that the powerful Democrat has understandably never explained through all these years. It’s haunted him though, through those early devastating political losses for the Senate and the Las Vegas mayor’s office, the defeats that turned him into the bitter, cynical political mumbler he’s become at age 72.

This troubling tale has haunted Harry Reid through the shadowy years he ran the Nevada Gaming Commission, through his public embarrassment over the Los Angeles Times investigation into his son and son-in-law’s Washington lobbying activities,the ethics investigation into the free tickets Reid happily accepted to boxing matches and the successful land development deal that ended up netting Reid $1 million when he sold it, in an amazing coincidence, to a friend and it became a shopping center.

And through all these years, Harry Reid has never bothered to deny that awful early story. Just as he’s never denied any early involvement with left-wing South American political parties and an unsuccessful 1964 bid to become a Goldwater Girl.

I remember that LA Times investigation well. It explained at least in part how Reid got to be so wealthy while working in public office. Maybe we can start asking Reid about that, because the LA Times actually did have a number of credible sources, as well as documentation from the public record.

Blowback

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I honestly see this as a win-win. If Romney really is a crook, we should know as soon as possible and just accept the fact that we picked a horrible candidate.

However, I don’t believe this is the case. I believe, as he is 101% of the time, that Reid is full of s**t. And when Romney’s records come out, he will be finished, and potentially take Senate control down with him.

House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi recently said that if Newt Gingrich is the Republican nominee, she will disclose what Americans do not now know about him out of confidential House Ethics Committee investigations.-American Thinkers

I’m assuming this “source”, if he or she were more than just a figment of this sleazeball’s imagination, would come forward publicly to make their accusation. What is stopping them? Why hide behind Reid?

Hey Harry, remember back in 1974 in that hotel room in Carson City? Yeah, when you woke up in a haze with a deceased prostitute in your bed? You really should have come through with that gambling license, but too late now, word is out. It’s a very serious accusation, so it’s your duty to prove your innocence. It’s so darned serious and well known that they based a character on Harry Reid in Godfather 2. The dude is a felon.

barack down in Rasmussem today. Approval at a 2012 low of 44%. STRONGLY disapprove at 45%. barack is cratering, and Harry Reid’s gutter politics is a big reason why. Looks like Harry KNOWS barack is toast, and he’s trying to keep the preference cascade from washing over the Senate.

If we’re gonna play “J’accuse,” I’m going to assert that Harry Reid has seen the illegally obtained IRS records of Mitt Romney, knows there’s something in there he can make hay out of (such as an investment with Madoff before anybody knew it was a scam, some unusual but legal deduction, etc), and is trying to goad Romney into releasing the information legally.

I wouldn’t put it past the current administration to have “looked” at Romneys taxes personally.It’s their MO.I’m not saying his taxes would actually have anything iffy in them, I’m saying it would show how he was able to use deductions that are perfectly legal but that would look like he wasn’t paying his fair share.It’s the “rich” guy, out of touch with the little people meme…

I could while away the hours, conferrin’ with the staffers
Consultin’ Obama’s rein.
And my head I’d be scratchin’ while
my schemes were busy hatchin’If I only had a brain.
I’d unravel every riddle for the NRA quibble,
helping Soro’s with the rein.
With the thoughts you’ll be thinkin’
Obama is another LincolnIf Reid only had a brain.
Oh, I could tell AGW has ocean’s near the shore.
I could try to think of things that never stuck before.
And then I’d sit, and scheme some more.
I am only just a nothin’ my head all full of stuffin’
My heart all full of Hate!
I would dance and be merry, Nancy would be my little patsy,If I only had a brain.

I don’t think Obama has adequately proven that his birthday really is August 4th. I’ve read multiple sources questioning Obama’s birth. I guess it is up to him to prove he really is turning 51 on Saturday.

Just think. During 2009 and 2010, Reid, Pelosi, and Obama were the three most powerful people in this country. How can something like that ever happen?! I don’t know how on earth Democrats aren’t embarrassed by Reid and Pelosi – putting their politics aside, they always appear deranged and senile.

It’s clear RomneyReid is hiding something, and the American people deserve to know what it is. Whatever Romney’sReid’s hiding probably speaks volumes about how he would approach issues that directly impact middle-class families, like tax reform and the economy. When you are running for presidentthe Senate, you should be an open book.

“I have here in my hand a list of unpaid taxes, unpaid taxes that were made known to me as having been unpaid by one Willard “Mitt” Romney, and who nevertheless is still free and uncharged when he should be a convicted felon, in jail, and not running for the office of the Presidency of the United States”

If we’re gonna play “J’accuse,” I’m going to assert that Harry Reid has seen the illegally obtained IRS records of Mitt Romney, knows there’s something in there he can make hay out of (such as an investment with Madoff before anybody knew it was a scam, some unusual but legal deduction, etc), and is trying to goad Romney into releasing the information legally.

Sekhmet on August 3, 2012 at 10:09 AM

It is also possible that there is something in those returns that would not sit well with the base, i.e. a contribution to Planned Parenthood.

Just a thought. Not that it would matter to me at this point. I will crawl over broken glass ….you know the rest.

Sometimes I’m surprised by the things Reid says, even though by now I shouldn’t. Although listening to Rush yesterday brought up a good point: could he be the sacrificial lamb for the Dems? Because no one else is really jumping on Harry’s bandwagon of nonsense.

Note, please, that we seem to be back to one source for this information — “an extremely credible source,” but Reid did not use a plural. Earlier in the week, Reid claimed to have “a number of sources,” and that “the word is out.” So which is it?

I said before, I was told by an extremely credible source that Romney has not paid taxes for ten years.

I’ll say it again;his story is changing. First he said his source was a Bain investor. Then yesterday, for a little extra credibility he said he had several sources. Now we’re back to a single source. Harry, dude you gotta pick a story and stick with it.

Listening to a guy that wrote a book comparing Romney to Obama and what we know and what information is not available. It was on Hugh Hewitt yesterday. The guy mentioned that Mitt had donated his entire inheritence his father George had left him to BYU and that allowed them to create the George Romney College of Public Policy at the school. Hugh was dumbfounded because he had written a book about Romney back in 2008 and had not known that.

The guy said Romney is not a self promoter so Hugh would have had to know who to ask. Its surprises in his background like this that make Romney a pretty good egg. He also mentioned Mitt was a Bishop in the Mormon church for 13 years. That post requires 30-60 hours per week. It was described as a front line crisis intervention position on a very personal level. Compare serving as a person comforting and counseling grieving or troubled family to our current community organizer.

The source is the IRS itself. Only Harry can’t say that, it is a federal offense to use the IRS for political purposes.
The information is going to come out, propably in mid October, through some NYT reporter getting a “leak” from the IRS and it will be claimed that Romney did not pay above 10% in 2008 and 2009.
Anyone with any sense knows that those years were ripe for “dumping the dogs”.
Remember that the markets were down those years, and Romney probably dumped the losers and took the tax advantage for that.
Since he has not fully released his 2011 return, he should pay a flat 25% on his 2011 earnings. He can always get that back in future years. But it will look so much better, and he can claim he is paying his “fair share”. Further, he can say we need to reform the tax system, and propose his tax plan at that time. So much more interesting.
And come down w/ both feet on the NYT if they engage as pawns to the Obama election trickery that they have used in every election they have run.

It’s haunted him though, through those early devastating political losses for the Senate and the Las Vegas mayor’s office, the defeats that turned him into the bitter, cynical political mumbler he’s become at age 72.

Harry Reid is conducting a scorched earth strategy. He’s burning everything around him because, if he can’t hold the Senate this fall, then no one will. He is bitterly clinging to power–and it is the power that he holds that is going to be his undoing.

What years is Dingy referring to? The ones where Mitt worked for nothing?

“After going to both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School simultaneously, he passed the Michigan bar, but never worked as an attorney. As a venture-capitalist, Romney’s first major business deal involved investing in a start-up office supply company with one store in Massachusetts that sold office supplies. That company, called Staples, now has over 2,000 stores and employs over 90,000 people. Romney or his company Bain Capital (using what became known as the “Bain Way”) would go on to perform the same kinds of business miracles again and again, with companies like Domino’s, Sealy, Brookstone, Weather Channel, Burger King, Warner Music Group, Dollarama, Home Depot Supply, and many others…

Got your calculators handy? Let’s recap. Volunteer campaign worker for his dad’s gubernatorial campaign – 1 year. Unpaid intern in Governor’s office – 8 years. Mormon missionary in Paris – 2 years. Unpaid bishop and stake president for his church – 10 years. No salary as president of the Olympics – 3 years. No salary as MA governor – 4 years. That’s a grand total of 28 years of unpaid service to his country, his community and his church. Why? Because that’s the kind of man Mitt Romney is.”

Let’s hope that the next leader of the senate has the balls to order an investigation of this sleeze pos. He’s the poster child forall the reasons the congress has such low esteem in the eyes of the people.

Didn’t Harry Reid conjur up a mysterious phone call from a young man who was worried about his illegal alien “friend” during one of the DREAM Act votes? There was never any documentation (pardon the pun) of any such call being made to him.

Let’s hope that the next leader of the senate has the balls to order an investigation of this sleeze pos. He’s the poster child forall the reasons the congress has such low esteem in the eyes of the people.

He’s already released the estimate. Why buy into the Dem argument that he has to do squat as far as this is concerned? These people are nothing but complete hypocrites…they didn’t care about how wealthy the Kerry/Edwards ticket was, and they don’t care that Obama is a millionaire himself. Screw ‘em.

Wasn’t it just last week that a poll was released saying twice as many people thought Obama was running the more negative campaign. And that they disapproved of it.
And Axelrod came out and said it was Romney’s fault for being so negative.
And Reid is then dumb enough to pull this stunt ?
Epic, epic idiotcy.

Sometimes I’m surprised by the things Reid says, even though by now I shouldn’t. Although listening to Rush yesterday brought up a good point: could he be the sacrificial lamb for the Dems? Because no one else is really jumping on Harry’s bandwagon of nonsense.

RadioAngel on August 3, 2012 at 10:21 AM

good point. Reid has political cover, he just got reelected. Many other Dems in the Senate are in dire trouble and have zero cover to be able to do this. Those are the Dems that need to be on the firing line right now. Harry Reid is the squirrel that’s scurrying away from the pack to draw fire. Keep fire trained upon the other ones that are up for reelection this fall. Harry can withstand this fire at this stage of his career, IMO. For a time at least.

But he IS the majority leader in the US Senate. Does it not bother you at all that this immensely powerful man has a trail of corruption behind him, makes outrageous and unsupported allegations, and refuses to release his own tax records?

Reid stepped in it with this and now he is trying to clarify his way out of it. He did what nobody else has been able to do, make Mitt Romney a sympathetic figure. Far from “tripling down,” this latest statement reeks of major damage control and desperate backpedaling. Reid was called out by Jon Stewart and Anderson Cooper, and also by The New Republic. He’s sinking fast on this and he knows it.

But Romney needs to be really careful about this. He cannot let Harry Reid off the hook by getting into a back-and-forth with him and taking his eye off Obama. He made his one comment yesterday when directly asked about it by Sean Hannity and he should not say aything else himself. Have his surrogates continue to pound Reid

But he IS the majority leader in the US Senate. Does it not bother you at all that this immensely powerful man has a trail of corruption behind him, makes outrageous and unsupported allegations, and refuses to release his own tax records?

Last weekend, Governor Romney promised that he would check his tax returns and let the American people know whether he ever paid a rate lower than 13.9 percent.

That was kind of a stupid thing to say if he didn’t check it first. Nearly everyone who makes a living through investments has winning years and losing years.

How many pages of documents are these records going to consist of? And how many amateur tax audits would Romny be subjecting himself to — thousands? Maybe millions?

You could give any tax return more complicated than an EZ to the ten top auditors in the IRS and you’ll get ten different opinions on whether they were filled out “correctly.” Someone like Ron Paul could use this as an indictment of America’s insane and idiotic income tax system. But if Romney tries to start doing that now, it’ll look hopelessly self-serving.

Romney should have been vetted at some point during the Republican Primary process. “The liberal media seem to think he’s OK right now” isn’t just a stupid credential. As we learned so painfully four short years ago, it’s the WORST POSSIBLE criteria for choosing a Republican candidate.

Let’s hope that the next leader of the senate has the balls to order an investigation of this sleeze pos. He’s the poster child forall the reasons the congress has such low esteem in the eyes of the people.

Kissmygrits on August 3, 2012 at 10:24 AM

It’s a huge blunder for Reid to raise his profile like this. Most low info voters don’t know the Dems control the Senate. The Democrats like it that way.

I’m waiting to see what gutless Republicans tell Romney he should release the last 10 years of his tax returns in response to this. Move on, there’s nothing to see here except the Dems revealing themselves as hypocrites once again.

Actually, I don’t know if this is true or not, but a very credible source, who I won’t name, told me that Harry Reid has one of the finest and most extensive collection of kiddie porn in all of Washington D.C.

Like I said, I don’t know if thats true or not, but you should probably go ahead and assume that it is until Harry proves otherwise.

Putting on my legal cap, it seems that Reid is only accusing Romney of not paying any taxes. He never said (that I can find) that Romney didn’t pay “his taxes.” Granted he has no proof and Reid is a douche, but his statements are worded in such a way that he’s not accusing Romney of illegal “tax evasion” but rather the Democrat-frowned upon tax avoidance.

I received an anonymous phone call last night informing me that Harry Reid donated nearly $100,000.00 dollars to support California’s attempt to ban same sex marriage. I’m calling on Harry Reid to provide the financial documentation to prove otherwise…

The source is the IRS itself. Only Harry can’t say that, it is a federal offense to use the IRS for political purposes.

gonnjos on August 3, 2012 at 10:23 AM

It is also a FELONY for anyone in the IRS or the Federal government, in general, to release tax information and/or to engage in a conspiracy to do so. The sentence is 5 years per offence. In this case, it would be 5 years for disclosure AND 5 for conspiracy FOR EACH TAX YEAR.

Romney should release a statement saying:

“This afternoon at 4 PM (EST), I will be at such-and-such place. If Harry Reid is telling the truth, then it is incumbent upon him to request that the IRS arrest me for tax evasion or fraud. If the IRS does not arrest me or send a target letter to my attorney, Mr John Doe, then we will all know — beyond a shadow of a doubt – that Senator Harry Reid is a world-class liar.”

It leaves me almost speechless. This is like the stereotypical cheater who sees their spouse cheating at every turn so they accuse the other of everything they’re doing first. It distracts from the real issue and leaves the impression that the roles are opposite.
Obama’s steadfastly refused to release original documentation to backup all the various claims. So the Dems initiate their devious plot to turn that all around on Romney and get their accusations out first that Romney is hiding something by not releasing his taxes. That Romney is hiding something by having a bank account in a Swiss bank. That Romney is the evil outsourcer. That Romney is the reason jobs are being lost. That Romney’s foreign policy trip was an embarassment and disaster.
Meanwhile, the truth is again that Obama has the tax problem. Obama’s economic policies are a dismal failure, surpassed by his foreign policy which has seen the so-called arab spring become the islamic radical summer.

Didn’t the Democrats just have to apologize to a Republican donator that they accused of dealing in Chinese prostitution? Apparently they “apologized” while leaving all the accusations in place on their website. I think it is safe to say that wild unsubstantiated claims is going to be the theme this election season and the press is just going to ignore it.

Dismiss this if you will, but I have witnessed more trash gain traction in this media environment than I ever thought possible in a modern, civilized political environment. Witness CNN and MSNBC keeping the embers hot.

There is no high ground on the left other than what they occupy in their minds.

“ANYONE MAY ARRANGE HIS AFFAIRS SO THAT HIS TAXES SHALL BE AS LOW AS POSSIBLE; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. THERE IS NOT EVEN A PATRIOTIC DUTY TO INCREASE ONE’S TAXES.

OVER AND OVER AGAIN THE COURTS HAVE SAID THAT THERE IS NOTHING SINISTER IN SO ARRANGING HIS AFFAIRS AS TO KEEP TAXES AS LOW AS POSSIBLE. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for NOBODY OWES ANY PUBLIC DUTY TO PAY MORE THAN THE LAW DEMANDS.”